PHILADELPHIA — Sunday’s game against Chicago presents a list of challenges for the Philadelphia Eagles.

The ability to bounce back after a loss. The task of covering two of the best wide receivers in the league in Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery.

A third, and most important, obstacle has nothing to do with Chicago. The NFC playoff picture is becoming more clear each week, and the relevance of Sunday’s game with Chicago rests on what Dallas does or doesn’t do against Washington in the afternoon.

A Cowboys win against Washington renders the matchup with the Bears almost meaningless, as the NFC East will be decided the following week when Philadelphia travels to Texas. A Cowboys loss gives the Birds everything to play for, with a chance to clinch the division with a victory vs. the Bears.

It’s a bit of an emotional roller coaster just hours before game time. Eagles head coach Chip Kelly joked Tuesday that if the Cowboys win the Eagles would “cancel the game” against Chicago.

On a more serious note, he noted that he wouldn’t rest any starters, no matter the outcome of the early game.

“We’ve got to play,” he said. “We’re not in a situation where we’ve got to rest anybody. We’ve got to play and get back on the winning track. We’ve got to be ready to play winning football”

Kelly said he won’t be tracking the score of that game, though he acknowledged that his team will know what they’re playing for before Sunday’s 8:30 p.m. start. Wednesday’s focus shifted to evaluating the loss against Minnesota and where the team stands with two games left in the regular season.

The 48-30 drubbing against the Viking didn’t look good, but it also helps break up a five-game win streak that would’ve needed to reach 12 for the Eagles to reach their ultimate goal.

“I don’t think any loss is a good thing,” Kelly said Wednesday. “But I think every circumstance you’re in, you can learn from. That’s a very valid point. I mean, losses happen, wins happen. You have to learn from all your losses and get ready for the next game.

“You just learn from every situation you’re in. What do we do in the critical situations? We didn’t keep our poise very well in the fourth quarter.”

The final quarter has been an issue for the Birds all year. An average of 12 points in the fourth over the last three games has brought the team’s season average up to 6.7, still just 16th in the league in fourth quarter points scored.

The defensive side of that statistic has been worse. The Eagles have allowed 11.3 points in the fourth quarter over their last three games and sit at 8.5 points allowed for the season in that category — 28th in the NFL and ahead of just Tennessee, Minnesota, Cleveland and Dallas.

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“I think all of us realized that going into that fourth quarter, we didn’t play our best game up to that point,” Defensive coordinator Bill Davis said Tuesday. “We still had opportunities to turn that game and win it even though we weren’t playing at our best.

“Collectively we all learned that we have to do better or bad things happen. We gave up 21 points in the fourth quarter and shouldn’t have.”

Despite just an 8-6 record, Chicago ranks behind only Denver in scoring offense this season with 29 points per. The fourth quarter is the Bears rallying point, as Chicago ranks No. 4 in fourth quarter offense with 8.9 points per game and is their highest scoring quarter.

“The mistakes are always there,” Davis said. “You always have to correct them. Most of them come down to the fourth quarter.

“I think it was a bad day. But I think you always have your strengths and weaknesses. We have to learn from it and respond to it. I believe they will respond in the right way. We’ll see Sunday night. It’s a huge challenge for us.”